The Dish

A reader writes:

Thanks for the post on Our Lady of the Rockies. It is quite an icon in these parts. I'm a Montanan, though not from Butte, and not a Catholic. When I first heard about it, I thought it was hilarious: kitsch at its finest. But about seven or eight years ago I went with a tour up the mountain to see her.

First you buy your ticket at the local mall, and there's a little movie that you watch as an introduction to the sight you are about to behold. When they were building it, the weather was bad, funds were short, it was hard to put the pieces together, they had to use helicopters and it was a miracle that it got done at all. The bus drive up the mountain to see it seemed ridiculous, almost impassable, a rutted dirt road up a long, steep set of switchbacks. Scary.

The statue itself blew me away. It's huge and very white. Even more amazing, though, is that the interior is filled, crammed with hanging rosaries and little cards with prayers all over the walls. It was awesome in the way that shrines in India are awesome: people visit with such humility, uninhibited faith, and genuine hope. I found it very, very touching. 

Another writes:

The actual "Butte Story" is probably quite a bit more complex than your reader suggests. As I understand it (a preponderance of internet sources such as this, no first-hand data), Bob O'Bill's original promise was to place a slightly larger than life size statue of Mary in his yard. As friends and co-workers and eventually even the military became involved, the scope of the project grew — a much bigger statue, a site several thousand feet above Butte. A road was blasted to the site so that a massive concrete base could be poured. The statue, in four pieces, was eventually lifted into place by helicopter, to much ringing of bells and hoopla in town far below. A tram is (perhaps) in the works. To make the project more widely appreciated, the statue became a tribute to women in general and mothers in particular.

What is strangely lacking in the accounts I read is any information about Bob O'Bill's wife. I couldn't even find her name. Is she (or Bob) still alive? How old were they when she was diagnosed with cancer? Was her cure long-lasting? How did she feel about the monument to her recovery? As in "The Pearl of Love" (H. G. Wells, 1924) the monument seems finally to have reduced the woman herself to irrelevance.

Today on the Dish, Andrew reacted to the latest "gossip" defense from the Vatican and addressed the fundamental question of the scandal in his Sunday column. A UN judge said that the pontiff can be charged. Yet another report of abuse here, more personal accounts of abuse here, here, and here, and a historical account here. Meanwhile, more silence from NRO.

Across the Pond, the Tories regained their footing. Kevin Sullivan marveled at the calm between Iraq and Iran, Scott Horton tried to stomach Karzai, and Jeffrey Gettleman explained why much of Africa never stops fighting. The Dish highlighted some unsettling footage of collateral damage in Iraq and an ex-military reader expressed outrage.

In pot coverage, Chris Good checked in on the legalization campaign in Cali, Friedersdorf talked taxes, and Pew found growing support nationwide. On the new iPad, Nick Carr saw a bright future while Cory Doctorow wanted to take it apart. Chait and Bartlett discussed the counterfactual of a Clinton presidency, Fallows scrutinized White House reporting, and Andrew offered a short journalism lesson. Rove watch here, Thiessen watch here, and Moore Award here. Cool ad here and cool app here.

— C.B.

A reader writes:

After seeing the shock on my face when my dad (now gone over 10 years) told me of the abuse he suffered by a priest while in a Hartford Catholic school during the early 30's, he said "I think it happened to most of the boys. It was like a rite of passage." He was trying to diminish the impact of the crime for me by normalizing it.

He went from being a young man headed for the priesthood, to a troubled alcoholic. Thankfully he overcame his demons, but not without a lot of work.

A woman prays as gospel music is sung during the sixty-third annual Easter Sunrise Service at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on April 4, 2010 in Morrison, Colorado. The service began at 6 a.m. and drew a crowd estimated at 10,200. By Matt McClain/Getty Images.

"All sorts of people have all sorts of motives, but the fact is that the press—the journalistic establishment in the U.S. and Europe—has been the best friend of the Catholic Church on this issue. Let me repeat that: The press has been the best friend of the Catholic Church on the scandals because it exposed the story and made the church face it. The press forced the church to admit, confront and attempt to redress what had happened. The press forced them to confess. The press forced the church to change the old regime and begin to come to terms with the abusers. The church shouldn’t be saying j’accuse but thank you," – Peggy Noonan, WSJ, April 2, 2010. Dreher seconds.

Noonan's inability to process the fact that Pope John Paul II was integral to the scandal, and personally complicit in covering up or denying the crimes of Marcial Maciel, is just her version of "keep in walking" with respect to George W. Bush. Once you buy into the logic of authority, it is extremely hard to question its abuse. But raped children at least beat tortured Muslims in her universe of acceptable accountability.

Ryan Sager's latest column turns a skeptical eye to one element of the health care law, calorie counts on restaurant menus:

One of the main findings of research into how and why we eat is that we’re very good at coming up with excuses to eat more. Exercised today? You’re entitled to another helping of cake. The food you’re eating is labeled “low fat”? Time to wolf down 10 more of whatever it is. Your favorite fast-food place has introduced a salad? A study last year in the Journal of Consumer Research showed that when you see a salad on the menu, you give yourself license to get something more indulgent.

His bottom line:

There are probably nudges that could reduce how much people eat — in fact, there certainly are — but they’d be much more intrusive. And that’s just thinking about restaurants. People may still overcompensate when they get home. Some problems are surprisingly easy. So far, it doesn’t look like nationwide obesity is one of them.

A reader writes:

Searching Google Books using euphemistic keywords like +cleric +corrupt reveals a centuries long history of rape and abuse within the Church, a history often celebrated by the Church itself, but as a lesson of overcoming temptations of the flesh. For example, consider the 12th century Christina of Markyate, a "young girl or adolescent" who after taking a vow of chastity, fled from an arranged marriage and sought protection from the Archbishop of York. Her story is told in John of Tynemouth's 13th century Latin manuscript Sanctilogium Angliae:

The archbishop commended her to the charge of a certain cleric, a close friend of his, whose name, I am under obligation not to divulge. He was at once a religious and a man of position in the world: and relying on this twofold status Christina felt the more safe in staying with him. And certainly at the beginning they had no feelings about each other, except chaste and spiritual affection. But the devil, the enemy of chastity, not brooking this for long, took advantage of their close companionship and feeling of security to insinuate himself first stealthily and with guile, than later on, alas, to assault them more openly. And, loosing his fiery darts, he pressed his attacks so vigorously that he completely overcame the man's resistance. But he could not wrest consent from the maiden …  Sometimes the wretched man, out of his senses with passion, came before her without any clothes on and behaved in so scandalous a manner that I cannot make it known, lest I pollute the wax by writing it, or the air by saying it.

This one story, 900 years old now, contains all the key elements of the scandal: abuse of trust, secrecy, and complicity of the hierarchy. As you have been writing, there are many more recorded accounts like it, and undoubtedly innumerable accounts never recorded.

Or rather applicant:

(Hat tip: Nerdcore)

A reader writes:

Your female reader's submission brings me to write the following. For many years I was married to a very good and wonderful woman who was repeatedly sodomized, raped, and beaten by a priest in her parish when she was 10-12 years old.  We were together many years, and while I would not say that her past abuses were the cause for our parting, they played a very heavy role in our relationship.  I was there when her memories returned and shared in a good deal of them. 

While I would not compare the effect on me in any way to the sufferings experienced by her or any of the victims, I do believe there is a strong psychological toll born by those who love and empathize for the victims.  Consider for a moment what it's like to repeatedly have images of the person you most love being subjected to these tortures and rapes as a child.  There is an enormous sense of pain compounded by powerlessness.  It fucks you up.